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The Hope Garden

We innocently believe ...

We innocently believe that we are complete,
until life's sun reveals to us,
so blindingly,
that no matter how glaring our will,
luminous our soul,
enlightened our mind, or
resplendent our personalities,
we are in veritable darkness
without the truth of love.

Anonymous

Who was the Girl with the Shiny White Shoes?

Anika Leist

Who was the firl who wore the shiny white shoes?
Did she wear them when she laughed, cried, and screamed?
Did she go to church and crawl on the pews?
Did her parents try to keep them clean?
Where did she lose her shiny white shoes?
Maybe at a park, a daycare, or in her mother’s arms?
I stare
I wonder
I look through the glass on the shelf the shoes are on.
It makes my mind wonder
It makes my mind tear
I will never know
But in the world, my questions still flow.

The Teddy Bear

Andrew Chabasiewicz

Who was the girl that lost her teddy bear?
How old was she, was she two or three?
Was her mother a doctor?
Was her father a soldier?
Why and how did she lose her bear?
Did a bully tak it and throw it away?
Did she drop it in the park?
Did she cry when she lost it?
Is she dead or alive?
Wa she Jewish
Or Christian?
Whatever happened to her
It wasn’t good.
Who was the girl that lost her teddy bear?

The Shoe

Marty Westhaver

Who was the baby who owned this shoe?
Did he miss his little shoe?
Where did he drop his little shoe?
And was he one or was he two?
When did he ose his little shoe?
Did he crawl or walk?
And could he talk?
What should he do?
He lost his little white shoe.

The Teddy Bear

Elizabeth Kitney

Who was the girl who cared
For that scruffy teddy bear?
Did she cuddle it to sleep every night?
Read stories to it under the moonlight?
Did her heart tear
When she dropped that teddy bear?
I think,
I wonder.
Will she ever care again
For another teddy bear?
Or will she always wonder
What became of that scruffy teddy bear?

My Teddy Bear

Paolina McDonough

I love my room
The bright walls and pretty flowers outside in bloom
My comfy bed covered with precious toys
Especially my favourite teddy bear, such joy.
My grandmother bought him for me last fall.
He is brown and furry, but not so tall.
I like to play with him all day long,
And when he’s sick, nurse him up with his favourite song.
I hope our special time never ends

Today, I clutch my mother’s hand,
It feels cold.
We walk silently to the camp I’ve been told.
I no longer am in my room safe and glad
Now I’m surrounded by soldiers who are mad.
I am worried that my teddy bear will be looking for me.
I am not there to play nor to bring him his tea?
Who will care for him now?
I hope and pray he’ll survive somehow.

Little White Shoes

Kirsten Reder

A little baby was born the day the Holocaust started and the Nazis came.
Was it a boy or a girl?
Did they miss their shoe?
Were they old enough to remember?
Did they like the way the little white shoes looked on their feet?
Did they care?
Did they cry?
Did they die that day the baby was born,
When the Holocaust started and the Nazis came?

The Little Brown Bear

Lexi Kondrak

A little girl had a little brown bear.
She dressed it up, and she combed its hair
But a very sad day soon come along,
She knew that something was very wrong:
Her teddy bear was missing!
She started crying
She tried to think where she last put it
She didn’t know she had dropped it in a mudpit
Where it will never be found,
Slowing sinking into the ground.
She died without her little brown bear,
And never again did she comb its hair.

The Teddy Bear

Jason McKinnon

Why was I looking at this teddy bear in my Grade 8 English class?
Who had lost it?
Was it a boy or a girl?
Did he or she love it?
Were they sad?
How did they lose it?
Did they drop it one day,
Or was it taken away?
Did they get too old for it and just throw it away?
Was it stolen on a cold day?
I wonder how they felt?
Were they sad or were they glad?
Did they cry their eyes out?
Or did they laugh?

Run Away

Daniel Umali

Who was the woman who wore that hat,
The one that I saw in English class?
Was she tall, skinny, or even busy with her children?
Was she running from the high fence that day?
Did she forget it in the house that day?
Did she have the hat from when she was little?
Or was it just given to her that day?
Was she married in the outrageous war?
Or married long before?
How long has it been since the hat was gone?
Was it a day or two months?
Did she die in the war, or
Did she just leave the house looking for more?

One Evening in July

Maddy Davies

A little girl was born,
One evening in July,
And on her fourth birthday,
She got a sweater she could not deny.
She loved it very dearly,
And she wore it every day.
But she lost it in a park nearby,
And her happiness went away.
The little girl was sad,
And she cried every day
She eventually got over it
But I just want to say
One evening last July
An old woman found a sweater.
She remembered it was hers,
And everything was better.